Saturday, September 6, 2008

Los EEUU

Returned and been back for a while. I'm settling in to life at the University of Dayton once again.

Thanks for all of your comments, for your concern, and for following my blog!

If you'd like to hear more, email me at kolispea@notes.udayton.edu or at kolispea@gmail.com. I've got innumerable stories that I'd love to tell!

Yours,
Pete

Saturday, August 2, 2008

Peresozo

It´s really been a while.

I haven´t done anything terribly exciting since I last wrote. I was excited to make a trip to Estelí for lunch with Lori, Anna, Jessica, and the Solar Culture Course and then return home alone by taxi and bus. I´ve never flagged a taxi down before. It was a powerful feeling. Until we got to what looked like a shopping center and the taxi driver told me ¨yeah, the bus terminal´s inside there.¨ I was quite pleasantly surprised to find that it really was.

Summer laziness has hit me pretty hard. I´m still showing up at the Solar Center to help and testing the autoclave, but I find myself lacking the energy to do much more. Like write. I hope you will forgive me as I head off to find some fresco.

Pete

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Los Cereales

It´s time to return to my staple food.

See if this phrase sounds familiar: ¨Siempre precios bajos. Siempre.¨
Roughly translated, it becomes ¨Always low prices. Always.¨
Don´t cry. Wal-Mart has infiltrated Nicaragua. They use the name Palí here.

How could we tell that it actually is Wal-Mart? Besides the slogan, ignoring the words ¨Wal-Mart Nicaragua¨ on some unopened boxes of merchandise, and discounting the ¨Wal-Mart¨ logo at the bottom of the Customers´Rights poster, I think it was the ¨Wal-Mart!¨ emblazoned on every employee´s nametag. Globalization strikes again, thinly veiled.

Pero a mí, no me importa. I need cereal with cold milk.
Globalization = path to Fruity Pebbles.

Frederlinda´s beside me in the Cyber, writing emails to past volunteers and friends. I´m the foreign Tech Support guy now. It´s pretty difficult. Fortunately, I´m right beside her and not in a foreign country. I can say ¨close the window¨ without waiting while curtains rustle.

Lori´s testing the solar autoclave today. It´s a nice day for it; the sun is shining and few clouds are in sight. I´ll be back to work this Monday, investigating retained heat cooking and testing the autoclave with Dan and Lori.

But now it´s time to buy Corn Flakes at Palí.

Yes, globalization has failed me; Fruity Pebbles never made it past the border.

Ciao!
Pete

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

La Pila

Somewhat curious -- I can´t view my own blog from down here. I suppose there´ll be time to figure that out later.

Spanish class is continuing on Tuesdays & Thursdays and I´m already getting sentimental about it. It´s been enjoyable. Our professor doesn´t pile on homework, and he´ll discuss a point for as much time as we need to understand it. I´ve never had a private tutor, but I imagine that it´s somewhat similar. I don´t want to give it up and return to classes of thirty.

Matt´s worked a lot on the gutters, and they´re finally going up. The PVC gutters are suspended on bent rebar right now, but they´ll soon be attached with attractive and non-rusting plastic supports. Matt, with some help, dug a ditch to run the rainwater from the gutters to a cistern out in the field.

The cistern, with a barbed wire ¨shirt of strength¨, began to rise from the ground yesterday and stands about five feet tall today. I´ve been helping to haul sand and mix cement. The plans are from Matt, CJ, and the Solar Center staff. Camilo, a local handyman/contractor/jack-of-all-trades, attached the rebar supports for the gutters and has been constructing the cistern from stones, bricks, barbed wire, and cement. It is a piece of art.

In the meantime, solar autoclave testing goes on.

Please pardon me for not responding to comments -- I can´t open the page to see them.
Try my email if you don´t like talking to a wall. Or feel free to post, secure in the knowledge that I shall not see the post for some time. Your choice!

Yours,
Pete

P.S. I shan´t mention your age, but happy birthday Aunt Sharon!

Saturday, June 28, 2008

La Computadora

We gave a computer class in the Solar Center yesterday, and I discovered something about learning and teaching. With twelve students, seven computers, and six teachers, we introduced people to touchpads, mice, double-clicking, shift buttons, click-and-dragging, word processing, powerpoint presentations, and excel spreadsheets.

Many of the ¨students¨ had already used computers, fortunately, and used the hour to practice typing and work in powerpoint. Others were learning to use touchpads by moving the cursor over a picture until it was visible and by clicking and double-clicking to destroy cartoon fish. A different game had letters (both uppercase and lowercase!) falling until they were typed. I´ve gotten quite good at that game. Curse the lack of an ¨ñ¨ on my American keyboard.

Well, after playing the mouse and keyboard games for a while, I opened up the Spanish version of Open Office and said ¨Check it out, you can write stuff!¨ Only to realize how boring and pointless that was. Look, the tab button can do indents. Woo-hoo.

But wait!
All of my time spent playing (pointless) computer games and creating (pointless) powerpoints about friends for my Communications class rushed to mind. All of my time in Spanish classes here and at UD talking through (pointless) situations came back to me! Oh, all of the (pointless) creating and destroying of folders and documents and pictures that I had done, at home and in computer classes! Why, the best way to teach might be to give a (perhaps pointless) assignment and be around to help!

Anyway, that was how the other volunteers were doing it, so I followed suit :-) I like the method, as long as the assignment is reasonably enjoyable.

On that note, I´m looking forward to helping Frederlinda create a powerpoint about her family. Anna suggested it to Frederlinda during the class, and Frederlinda´s excited to learn more about Powerpoint, Excel, Word, and everything else from Anna.

Wicked sweet!

Hasta luego,
Pete

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Las Clases

Spanish classes every morning with Prof Chico are going well. I have nearly mastered the past tense. The imperfect, present perfect, and future tenses will be the next ones to fall. I see them, waiting with bated breath, wary of their approaching conjugation.

I´m really curious to see how much my Spanish has improved since I´ve arrived. After a while, we´ll have oral interviews to be officially ranked as Intermediate-Low, Intermediate-High, Advanced-Low, or wherever we land. Wish me luck in a few weeks.

Work is progressing with the solar autoclave (more about the projects soon!) and I´m wicked excited that Vince and Lori are here--Vince for the weekend and Lori until the cows come home...

Hasta muy pronto,
Pete

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Granada

I spent last night sipping piping hot sweet tea, relaxing in a hammock under the stars in Granada, full and content after a chicken quesadilla and a chilled mojito from a nearby bar.

Just wanted to let you know that it´s vacation weekend.

I would write more, but Vince, Anna, and Dan are in the pool, and I have my swimsuit on.

Later!

Pete

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Para relajarme

Work is progressing. There are ceiling and roof tiles being replaced, a solar cooker being constructed, and a plan for gutters coming together. I´m glad to claim a small part in each activity.

To relax, I´ve been thinking...

Things I´ve learned since I´ve been in Nicaragua:
1. Vegetables are edible.
2. Shirts should not be off for long when there is sun.
3. Shoes should be worn while playing soccer to prevent injury.
4. Food takes a long time to prepare.
5. A corn tortilla is much easier to eat after it is wrapped around moist food.
6. Plantains need to be eaten with a jug of water nearby.
7. The @ sign is ALT-6-4 on the numeric keypad (haven´t seen @ on a keyboard yet).
8. Photovoltaics are expensive and inefficient.
9. Solar cookers are expensive and aren´t used for much here.
10. Vicente Fernandez is amazing.
11. The internet is difficult to explain in a foreign language.
12. I take Wikipedia for granted.
13. I have no idea what separates ketchup from pasta sauce.
14. Hugs are incredible and necessary.


Things I´ve craved since I´ve been in Nicaragua:
1. A Blooming Onion from Outback Steakhouse
2. Water (It´s easily available; I just find myself desiring it a lot)
3. A hug
3. Frederlinda´s soy cakes with ketchup on top
4. Fresh lemonade (so delicious... I drank the entire last pitcher.)
5. Pepsi and Coke
6. An ice cream cone from the Eskimo man (he answered my prayers yesterday!)
7. Solar-roasted coffee
8. Real pasta sauce (not just a mix of ketchup and barbecue sauce)

With much love and appreciation (Thank you for reading my posts!),
Pete

P.S. I´m taking Spanish classes!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

muy corto

Still kicking.

I´ve learned to enjoy the taste of tomatoes. They´re like a fresh, juicy piece of summer.

The coffee here is also amazingly appealing. I´ve only had a cup, but I´m warming up to it. I learned to brew the sweet stuff two days ago.

I walked to the fields with Frederlinda´s brother Amilcar this morning. He was plowing with the pair of bueyes that normally stand near the house. I walked down and back with him seven or eight times (about a half hour) and was tired. He was in the field plowing from 6am to 1pm today.

More later!

encantado escribir a ustedes,
Pete

Saturday, May 31, 2008

el huracán

Hurricane Alma passed almost peacefully. I went with Amilcar and Maynor to visit Matt during the worst of the rain. We made it back to our house drenched but safe.

I´m kind of worried that I´m telling all of my good stories here and that I´ll have nothing left when I return. Grrr. Anyway, here goes.

I did make it to the swimming hole with Emily and others. After a good half-hour walk through trees and along a rocky streambed, we saw the little lagoon 30 feet below, over the edge of an enormous rock with all of the creek water flowing over it. Needless to say, it was a lovely 30'foot jump and the water was amazingly refreshing. Getting back up was challenging but fun. The second time in was also good.

Feeling not entirely challenged, Dan, Anna, and I took a trip up the nearby mountain-hill with Frederlinda´s son Maynor and two of his (and our) young friends. Maynor is 12; The two girls are about the same. The trip up was rocky and scary, but the view of Sabana Grande was amazing. It really is a plain surrounded by mountains. The trip down the other side of the mountain-hill was also incredibly scary; I was sliding down pine needles on the seat of my pants. I probably didn´t need to be quite that cautious (Maynor and the two girls were running), but it freaked me out. Dan says that he´ll be climbing a farther mountain soon. I think I´ll take off my flip-flops and put on my hiking boots for that one.

Alex and I were playing a game this afternoon where we bounced a coin off a wall and tried to land it within hand´s reach of the other guy´s coin. It is fantastically easy to amuse Maynor and the other kids here. I have a little LED which has a strobe setting, and I freaked out Maynor and Marlen with it at night. It really is freaky to see somebody´s strobing face creeping and then speeding toward your own. I also freaked out Marlen (and Marisela) with a frog that was sitting by the porch. I´ve never caught anything larger that a firefly before, so I didn´t know what to expect. Fortunately, the frog-toad-thing had a nice backbone to grip. I was afraid that it was exploding when I first grabbed it (I nearly dropped it!), but it was only croaking.

The food here continues to be delicious, and I did find another egg in my window. It was part of my lunch today. Scrambled, not sunny-side-up. I´m looking forward to helping Dan construct his solar cooker and (most likely) replacing one or a few tiles in the solar center´s tiled (they´re called tejas) roof. Matt and I will also probably be planning a gutter system, even if it doesn´t end up being constructed this summer. There´s always time.

ciao!
Pete

Saturday, May 24, 2008

un huevo

Yesterday, I found an egg in the window. Today, I had rice, beans, vegetables, and an egg for breakfast. Then I shooed a chicken out of my room. Leaving the door ajar was not brilliant.

I´m back in Ocotal, the nearby city. It´s about 10 miles from Honduras, and an 8-minute bus ride from Sabana Grande. The buses here are from the States; there are still signs inside marking emergency exits. Every bus has religious icons in the front; I´m not certain why. Anyway, the last two rides to Ocotal that I´ve had were standing room only. On the way back to Sabana Grande, I should be able to find a seat.

Emily, one of the other volunteers here, is going to take a few people on a hike this afternoon. I´ve been given to understand that there´s a swimming hole involved. If I can, I´m going in.

Pete

Friday, May 23, 2008

el sol

I´m tired, hot, and sunburnt. Now is not a good time to blog; I´d like to relax for a while first. But I´ve been thinking about what to blog, so here´s most of it:

I like showering outside among the trees with the mountains off in the distance. I expected it to be awkward, but It´s very relaxing and refreshing.

Frederlinda prepares amazing meals. I never thought that I´d enjoy rice, beans, plantins, lentils, tomatoes, and some other vegetables on the same plate (much less at all), but I can´t put my plate down :)

I plan to choose something to work on very soon. I was at the school this morning learning how to ground an electrical system (and why), and I believe that I´ll be working with one of the Solar Center staff soon on gutters (and what to do with the rain water) for the solar center.

Mike Vehar just left the house, bound for Honduras. I´m not over that loss yet.

I think I´m going to get a Coke now. It sounds nice and refreshing and sugary and cold and delicious...

hasta luego!
Pete

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

la ciudad de Managua

I stick out like a sore pinky :)

I still don´t know enough Spanish to survive alone. I had trouble changing a 100 cordoba bill for c$10 bills today. I did not learn that skill in Spanish class, but it´s necessary here. Imagine handing a $100 bill to a hot dog vendor--nobody´s going to have change!

We had rice and beans for dinner yesterday as well as breakfast and dinner today. I think that this is only the beginning. Those were just the common elements; there was much more delicious food. The fruit juices were freshly squeezed with a bit of water and sugar--orange, passion fruit, lemonade, and more. They are fantastic!

We talked with some 8- and 9-year-old kids today. I cannot speak at a second-grade level :-) I do need to practice.


ciao!

Monday, May 19, 2008

en avion

I translated for a Guatemalen man and helped him make it through the Cincinnati airport ticketing, customs, and terminals this morning (around 5am). It wasn´t too difficult, but I found that it slowed my English down because I was thinking in 2nd grade Spanish.

Everyone made it here okay and I´ll add updates later!

Friday, May 16, 2008

3 Days

Woop - Time to get down to business.

Two years ago, I traveled to the Belgian cities of Brussels and Brugge with my aunt, uncle, brother, and cousin. I felt stupid only knowing English and decided then to study a foreign language in the fall.

Later that summer, I met the chair of my department. Dr. Hallinan introduced me to ETHOS, an organization at UD which connects UD students with volunteer opportunities abroad (In Spanish-speaking countries for the most part) and helps prepare students for those trips. Hearing about ETHOS, I decided to take Spanish classes along with my regular mechanical engineering classes.

I've been taking classes for four semesters now, and ETHOS set me up on a trip to Sabana Grande, Nicaragua (it's near Ocotal, in the northwestern part of Nicaragua, incredibly close to Honduras). I'll be working with Grupo Fenix (see grupofenix.org) and four other UD students (Matt, Lori, Dan, and Anna) on solar stoves, a solar autoclave, and more (to be defined soon, I hope). Another UD student, Vince, will be in Managua, Nicaragua.

I'll be returning home in early August. Until then, please enjoy my updates and my philosophical and technical commentary!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

6 Days

Finally unpacking from UD

Friday, May 9, 2008

10 Days

Not that I'm counting

Thursday, May 1, 2008

18 Days

Two and a half weeks